Black Friday Gaming Computer deals??

So I've been playing on this Dell 17" laptop for about 4 years now. It was great when I first got it. But it's been getting progressively slower over time. The computer is great for everything else I use it for, so I've been postponing replacing it. I just couldn't justify spending the money on new computer JUST so I could play a game with the graphics turned up higher.

But now, black friday is upon us. Currently my laptop can do 10mans with no problems on low graphics settings, and 25mans with quite of bit of lagging. The bar is not being set very high. I'd like a desktop that can handle 25 mans on medium-high settings (ie: shows ALL aoe so I don't stand in bad) that will cost me less than $500, and can be upgraded semi-easily. The computer will be used as a gaming rig and hard-drive-whore.

Ideally, I'd like to buy a PC bundle at a big-box store for $300-400, then get a better graphics card and bigger hard drive and call it a day. I'm wondering if anyone has been browsing the adds and can point me in the right direction?

My 2c is that you will be hard pressed to build a gaming rig for under $500, here in Aus I reccomend people to budget around $1400 for a complete new rig (monitor, keyboard, mouse, case, etc), however in the US computer parts are cheaper so probably ~$900-$1100 for a decent gaming rig. However this does depend on what games you want to play and whether you want something that is going to play new releases at high res and quality over the next couple of years.

So first things first, what games are you looking to play?
How much storage are you ultimately aiming for?
What size monitor do you have or are you looking to purchase one aswell?
How long do you want this PC to "last"? (by last I mean how long do you expect to use it for gaming until you upgrade again?)

You can build a gaming rig for much less than you can get a gaming laptop. I'm not sure I've see a "gaming" laptop for any where near $500. Why not get a PC for gaming and keep the laptop for when you're on the move?

hi mate, scroll down and have a look at the MMO system specs...they review monthly and perhaps stay away from Unicorn and look at puppy!!!

Seriously though mate, for the price your looking to pay you wouldn't be able to buy 1 of my GPU's, I'm a nerd and run triple SLI! What you scrimp on now just means you need to upgrade sooner next time!!!

The only game I play is WoW, but I will likely be playing SWTOR.
Storage: 1-2 TB should be plenty.
Probabaly going to go with a 20-23" monitor, don't have one yet, but that's not included in the budget for the tower.
Doesn't need to "last" that long. I'd like something pre-built that I can upgrade somewhat easily.

I was hoping to wait until after the holidays when I'd be able to drop ~1k on something. But my laptop has shut off due to overheating 3 times in the last week just doing battlegrounds in the last 2 weeks. I feel like WoW is too much of a stressor on it at this point. So unless I want to quit playing for a few months (and do something productive with my life...), I need to get something mid-grade now that I can upgrade a little ways down the road. But I'd like to keep playing now so I can get the last few pieces of H FL gear on my rogue so I can stay first in line for the legendaries in my guild.

Msft

Originally Posted by elbowdeep

Doesn't have to be the best gaming computer ever, I just want to be able to turn the graphics above the lowest settings.

And what do you mean Seattle'ish? I'm in Bellevue.

Nothing to do with topic but state of WA sucks with all that BS rain and nothing to do after 8 P.M. I ran back to NYC after quitting Microsoft. I find it funny how everyone thinks that Bellevue Square is the thing to do on a weekend after work. Stupid bowling/arcades. Sorry that I'm venting. I love my job there at MSFT but I really wanted to slit my wrists at times when I lived there.

You can build a gaming rig for much less than you can get a gaming laptop. I'm not sure I've see a "gaming" laptop for any where near $500. Why not get a PC for gaming and keep the laptop for when you're on the move?

Read more better. I'm looking to replace my laptop with a gaming PC.

---------- Post added 2011-11-22 at 10:05 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Evilshot

Nothing to do with topic but state of WA sucks with all that BS rain and nothing to do after 8 P.M. I ran back to NYC after quitting Microsoft. I find it funny how everyone thinks that Bellevue Square is the thing to do on a weekend after work. Stupid bowling/arcades. Sorry that I'm venting. I love my job there at MSFT but I really wanted to slit my wrists at times when I lived there.

The only people who hang out at bellevue square are middle and high school kids. Nobody over the age of 18 stays in Bellevue for a good time. They'll drive the 5 minutes to Seattle for some real fun. And rain is a small price to pay for green plants year-round, I love it here. I seriously doubt you worked at microsoft, you sound like a kid who didn't fit in at high school and moved back home to live with your grandparents in NY.

Okay in regards to storage 1-2TB is not going to happen right now with hard drive prices going through the roof due to the floods in Thailand, not on your budget anyway. As stated have a look at the Puppy setup on the front page. It should run wow comfortably and you probably won't find cheaper to be frank.

First off, you don't need current hardware to play wow. My PC is quite old now, I built it when the original i7's were released. I get 60FPS for most stuff in WoW and around 30 in 25man raids with every setting at max through console commands. (Which is higher than the sliders go)

You could probably put together a pretty descent computer for WoW if you buy previous generation hardware, if that's all you want the PC for. For reference, I run Adobe CS 5.5 Master, Eclipse, MS Office, Visual Studio, Expression Studio, and tons of other software on my PC daily, and none of that bogs it down. There are times when I have pretty much everything open too!

Don't get me wrong, a new Sandybridge system would kick ass, but if you need a PC cheap and you've been happy with your old laptop... something like this would be pretty good. The only downside is upgrades, as the old i7 sockets are different than the new ones.

Minimal build
This would be able to play WoW on mid or high settings with a high resolution (1680x1050 or 1920x1080). The intel version costs about $15 more, but will perform significantly better in raids. If we had normal hdd prices right now, the whole build would be under $400

Like the heading suggests, this build is the minimum what is acceptable, when you want decent performance in raids, while still being able to turn graphic details up a little bit. If you want something that is also a little bit future-proof (good performance in other games, up-to-date interface connectors, room for upgrades) you will have to spend a bit more.

Black Friday

Every year the kickoff time for Black Friday shopping has been earlier than the year before and this year promises to be the same.

---------- Post added 2011-11-24 at 09:17 AM ----------

Every person who shops will have fun on Black Friday. While waiting all night for the sale to start, many people will walk around the shop and select up things that really were not on the list.

---------- Post added 2011-11-24 at 09:19 AM ----------

According to market research company, BIG research, 60 million consumers went shopping last year on Black Friday, which was an eight-percent increase over the previous year.

---------- Post added 2011-11-24 at 09:23 AM ----------

Last year a handful of malls broke tradition and decided to have midnight sales as Thanksgiving rolled into Black Friday and because of the success, more malls throughout the country are planning midnight openings this year.